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RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS
jar: the object of the rite is expressed in this prayer, which accompanies the presentation of fruits and flowers to the jar: “Oh Ghaútá - karna! healer of diseases, do thou preserve me from the fear of cutaneous affections *.” Ghantá-karna is described in the Siva Purána as endowed with great personal beauty, and is, therefore, reputed to sympathise with those who suffer any disfigurement. In Hindustan there are directions for worshipping Maheswara, or Siva himself, on the fourteenth of the light half of Phálguna.
Dola YÁTRÁ, or Holi.-Thirtieth solar Phálguna, or first of Chaitra; fifteenth day, light half, or full moon of Phálguna (16th March).--Although named together, and in various parts of India, especially in Bengal, confounded with each other, yet in other places these festivals are still, as they no doubt were originally elsewhere, distinct'; the Dolotsava, or Swinging Festival, taking place at a date something later, and this period belonging, most appropriately, to the Holí. It will be convenient to notice them here together however, for the Holí, as a distinct celebration, is not known in Bengal, although many of the observances which are there practised at the Dola Yátrá are in many respects the same, are influenced
* [quera hartt Haarfufaattai
विस्फोटकभये प्राप्ते रक्ष रक्ष महाबल ॥ Tithitattwa.] " The Kalpa Druma does notice a Dolotsava, -the swinging of Krishúa on the Phálguní púrnimá.
